The Insider

The Army announced today the implementation of a new "Associated Units" pilot program that establishes formal relationships between identified units across the active-duty Army, Reserve and National Guard that would allow those units to train together before deployment.

"Much of America's Army's capacity is resident in the Reserve Components and we must rely more heavily on them to meet the demands of a complex global environment," Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said in a statement, adding: "The Associated Units pilot allows us to leverage the capabilities and capacities of the Active Component, Army Reserve and the Army National Guard as One Army."

Army Reserve chief Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Talley said in the same statement that the new pilot program "facilitates readiness and strategic depth across components. These units will train, build readiness, and ultimately fight as One Army."

Georgia-based units will be the first ones to set up the pilot effort, beginning this summer, according to the statement.

Task Force 1-28 Infantry, an active-duty Army infantry battalion stationed at Ft. Benning, GA, will be associated with the 48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, a Georgia Army National Guard unit. Additionally, the 48th Infantry Brigade will be associated with the active-duty 3rd Infantry Division, stationed at Ft. Stewart.

Army National Guard Director Lt. Gen. Timothy Kadavy said the soldiers of Task Force 1-28 and the soldiers of the Georgia Army National Guard's 48th Infantry Brigade would wear the 3rd Infantry Division's patch.

"This brigade will train and, if called to do so, deploy and fight with the 3rd Infantry Division as an Associated Unit," Kadavy said. "These units will develop relationships and standards in home station so they may fight together in combat without having to meet on the battlefield and figure these things out."

In addition to the Georgia-based units, the following additional units will be associated under the Associated Units pilot this summer, according to the statement:

*  The 1st Battalion, 143 Infantry Regiment from the Texas Army National Guard will be associated to the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team stationed in Vicenza, Italy;

*  The 1st Battalion, 151 Infantry Regiment from the Indiana Army National Guard will be associated to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division stationed in Schofield Barracks, Hawaii;

*  The Hawaii-based 100th Battalion, 442 Infantry Regiment, U.S. Army Reserve, will be associated with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division stationed in Schofield Barracks, Hawaii;

*  The 81st Armored Brigade Combat Team, Washington Army National Guard, will be associated with the 7th Infantry Division stationed in Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington;

*  The 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, stationed in Fort Polk, Louisiana, will be associated with the Texas Army National Guard's 36th Infantry Division;

*  The 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team from the Vermont Army National Guard will be associated with the 10th Mountain Division, stationed in Fort Drum, New York;

*  The North Carolina-based 824th Quartermaster Company, U.S. Army Reserve, will be associated with the 82nd Sustainment Brigade, stationed in Fort Bragg, North Carolina;

*  The 249th Transportation Company, Texas Army National Guard, and the 1245th Transportation Company, Oklahoma Army National Guard, will be associated with the 1st Cavalry Division Sustainment Brigade, stationed in Fort Hood, Texas;

*  The 840th Engineer Company, Texas Army National Guard, will be associated with the 36th Engineer Brigade, stationed in Fort Hood, Texas;

*  The 1176th Transportation Company, Tennessee Army National Guard and the 2123rd Transportation Company, Kentucky Army National Guard, will be associated with the 101st Sustainment Brigade, stationed in Fort Campbell, Kentucky; and

*  The 5th Engineer Battalion, stationed in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, will be associated with the 35th Engineer Brigade from the Missouri Army National Guard.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter heads to Capitol Hill this week to justify the Pentagon's fiscal year 2017 budget request, while members of Congress are scheduled to receive an update on the most expensive program in Defense Department history -- the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

Tuesday

The House Armed Services Committee will hear from Carter, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford and Pentagon Comptroller Mike McCord on the FY-17 budget. Link: http://1.usa.gov/21Dh7Vr

The House Appropriations defense subcommittee will hear from guard and reserve officials on the FY-17 budget. Link: http://1.usa.gov/1Rw5Mk4

The House Armed Services seapower and projections subcommittee will hear from U.S. Transportation Command officials on logistics and sealift force requirements. Link: http://1.usa.gov/21Dh7Vr

The House Armed Services emerging threats and capabilities subcommittee will hear from the Defense Department's chief information officer and deputy chief management officer on information technology and cyber programs. Link: http://1.usa.gov/21Dh7Vr

Wednesday

The House Armed Service tactical air and land forces subcommittee will receive an update on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. Link: http://1.usa.gov/21Dh7Vr

PAE said today Ken Myers, former director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and U.S. Strategic Command's Center for Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction, has been named president of its national security solutions unit, effective today.

Before spending nearly seven years at DTRA, Myers was a senior professional staff member on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and a senior legislative assistant for national security in the office of former Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN).

Myers will oversee the 3,000-employee national security solutions business, which specializes in identity management services, forensic and biometric operations and analysis and comprehensive training.

Some must-reads from this week's issue of Inside the Navy:

1. The Navy is facing a weapons shortfall, initially sparked by a decision to maintain high-end capability project funding levels in the face of a declining defense budget and further exacerbated by the campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, according to a service official and budget documents.

Full story: Official: Navy weapons inventory needs to be examined by 2018

2. The amount of fuel used by the relatively new class of Littoral Combat Ships could change the Navy's requirement for 17 fleet replacement oilers, according to a report to Congress.

Full story: Littoral Combat Ship fuel usage could change fleet oiler requirement

3. The Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory's wargaming division is focusing on future force design and capability development, according to a service official.

Full story: Marine Corps war games focus on future force design, capabilities

4. The Marine Corps revealed last week that the requirement for the next iteration of the Amphibious Combat Vehicle, dubbed 1.2, will most likely include a 12 mile ship-to-shore threshold, according to a senior official. The new threshold is a significant increase over what had previously been discussed.

Full story: Marines reveal ACV 1.2 will have threshold requirement of 12 miles

Airborne lasers, the Joint Strike Fighter and submarines highlight this Friday INSIDER Daily Digest.

Looks like there's a new iteration of the Airborne Laser concept floating around:

SOCOM seeks additional funding for airborne laser to be used in 'clandestine' strikes

U.S. Special Operations Command is asking Congress for additional funding in fiscal year 2017 to begin experimentation on an Airborne High Energy Laser intended for precision strikes during clandestine operations, according to an "unfunded requirements" memo obtained by Inside Defense.

Document: SOCOM's unfunded requirements list

Don't expect Lockheed Martin to drive down the price of the F-35 to its stated goal of $10 million per jet anytime soon:

Lockheed continues to drive down JSF price, far from $10M savings goal

Lockheed Martin continues to drive down the price of the Joint Strike Fighter by investing in smaller projects that yield large returns but the company is far from its goal to reduce the price by $10 million per jet, according to a company executive.

The head of Huntington Ingalls Industries talked submarines with Inside Defense this week:

Huntington Ingalls CEO 'really happy' with progress of Ohio Replacement Program

The Huntington Ingalls chief executive said this week he's pleased with the current status of the Ohio Replacement Program.

Huntington Ingalls 'working with the Navy' to boost submarine supply

Huntington Ingalls is working with the Navy on a plan to produce more submarines, the company's chief executive told Inside Defense this week.

Raytheon will be getting a sole-source Global Hawk sensor contract:

Air Force plans to sole-source Global Hawk sensor retrofits to Raytheon

The Air Force will sole-source sensor suite modifications for the Block 30 Global Hawk to Raytheon, according to a justification posted to Federal Business Opportunities on March 3.

Keep an eye out for questions from lawmakers regarding the cost of the Long-Range Strike Bomber:

Lawmakers, analysts skeptical of Air Force's lack of B-21 cost disclosure

As the Air Force continues to develop a security plan for information related to the B-21 Long-Range Strike Bomber, some lawmakers and defense analysts are skeptical of the service's claims that releasing the B-21 contract value could cause potential adversaries to learn key information about the highly veiled system's capabilities.

Mike Petters, chief executive of Huntington Ingalls, said this week that the Ford-class aircraft carrier lead ship is in the test phase and is expected to get to sea "in the middle of the year."

Inside the Navy reported last month that delivery of the Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) could be delayed by up to three months.

"Ford is a ship that’s essentially built," he told Inside Defense this week. "We’re in the test phase now, testing all of the systems on the ship -- systems that we built, systems that were government-furnished. We’re testing the systems themselves, but then we’re testing how they interact with each other. This is the first chance that some of these systems have actually had the chance to work with each other.

"When you step back and think about the decisions that were made 10 to 15 years ago about all of the innovation that was going on, all of the new kinds of stuff that was going into this ship, we’re kind of ironing out those challenges," Petters continued.

He said the ship "now is on a path to get to sea, and it’s got to come through this test program to go to sea, and we expect that to happen in the middle of the year."